Promoting awareness and appreciation

National Engineers Week at UD typically features events ranging from the serious and formal Order of the Ring Ceremony that inducts students into an engineering fellowship to the more lighthearted--and certainly noisier--broom hockey tournament.

The weeklong 2004 celebration followed the usual extensive and varied agenda, but Assistant Dean Michael Vaughan notes that all the activities, however diverse, are planned with a shared purpose.

"Our goal is to showcase the various disciplines of engineering and the accomplishments of engineers," Vaughan says. "At the same time, we want participants to have fun as we work to increase public awareness and appreciation of the field."

Founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, National Engineers Week is celebrated annually across the country, with this year's events held in February. The 2004 schedule at the University included an engineering and technology jobs fair that drew representatives from 40 companies, a "Women in Engineering" night, presentations of senior design projects, graduate school panel discussions, a carnival, academic and Olympics competitions, a money-management workshop, a presentation on ethics and a scavenger hunt.

A special competition gave high school students the opportunity to solve challenging engineering problems. "This is especially important because engineering is a subject that is not taught at the secondary school level, and many high school students are unfamiliar with what is really involved in engineering as a discipline or a profession," Dean Eric Kaler says.

The week's events were organized by the College, its various student organizations, the Delaware Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, UD's MBNA Career Services Center, the Delaware Council of Engineering Societies, the DuPont Co. and the Society of Women Engineers.

Vaughan emphasizes the significant contribution made by students. "They helped plan and carry out all of the events," he says. "We couldn't have done it without them."